Ethical cleansing

A colleague of mine narrated an incident that occurred to him recently. He takes a bus to the office everyday. That day he was seated & was reading a newspaper to kill time during his bus-ride. Just then someone prodded him. The fellow standing next to him urged him to lend his seat to a lady who too was standing nearby. A thorough gentleman, he immediately obliged. My friend was then pick-pocketed by the same guy :D

The Bangle Sellers

I've been trying to lay my hands on this poem for soooo long & am glad that I finally managed to find it! I first came across it in one of my English-texts in school & vaguely recalled it. I remembered that it was so full of such powerful metaphors & similes that even at that age it had hit me like a brick. I like it so much that I just can't help sharing...


The Bangle Sellers
- Sarojini Naidu

Bangle sellers are we who bear
Our shining loads to the temple fair...
Who will buy these delicate, bright
Rainbow-tinted circles of light?
Lustrous tokens of radiant lives,
For happy daughters and happy wives.

Some are meet for a maiden's wrist,
Silver and blue as the mountain mist,
Some are flushed like the buds that dream
On the tranquil brow of a woodland stream,
Some are aglow wth the bloom that cleaves
To the limpid glory of new born leaves

Some are like fields of sunlit corn,
Meet for a bride on her bridal morn,
Some, like the flame of her marriage fire,
Or, rich with the hue of her heart's desire,
Tinkling, luminous, tender, and clear,
Like her bridal laughter and bridal tear.

Some are purple and gold flecked grey
For she who has journeyed through life midway,
Whose hands have cherished, whose love has blest,
And cradled fair sons on her faithful breast,
And serves her household in fruitful pride,
And worships the gods at her husband's side.

To Kashid beach & Murud-Janjira fort

Revisited the Kashid beach and the Murud-Janjira fort, this time with my mother. It's a serene beach with white-sands in the North of Konkan. Reached there via Pen & Alibag after taking the Khopoli-bypass off the Pune-Mumbai Expressway. It took us roughly 3.5 hours from Aundh, Pune. One can also take the Panvel-exit instead at the end of the expressway. Or one may even skip the expressway & take a completely different route - the Tamhini Ghats (via Mangaon).
Being odd-days (Monday, Tuesday), there were just 10 people (including us) on the entire beach. That made it look all the more serene & enjoyable :-). Was put up at the Prakruti Resorts, a fantastic place by the beach. Also bumped into Sherrin Varghese of the 'Band of Boys' fame, who was there with his wife & kid.
The next day took a boat-ride to the fort. Though repetitive for me, mom enjoyed it thoroughly.
All n' all a very relaxed & an enjoyable trip :-)

Indian Parliament on terror...

It was quite a feeling to watch yesterday's Parliamentary debate/discussion regarding tackling terrorism in the wake of the recent terror-attacks at Taj/Trident/CST. After a very long time, I saw the politicians rise above petty party-boundaries. They spoke with maturity, honesty & genuine concern. The ruling government spoke with an apologetic tone and the opposition didn't take pot-shots at them. Nor did they pounce on opportunities to score brownie-points. It was the coming-of-age of an otherwise squabbling lot.

What was encouraging was that even the young-entrants to politics seemed very informed & concerned.

Tricking oneself...

Ever since I've realized that I'm getting lousier by the day when it comes to reaching office 'on time', I've made my wrist-watch run fast by 30 mins. It hasn't helped. Instead, now whenever I check time, I spend another second in subtracting 30 mins. from the displayed-time. So much for cheating oneself!

Bowled over by Arya...

Must admit that Arya Ambekar's rendition of the song "Chandane shimpit jaashi" on Nov. 23rd 2008's episode of 'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa - Little champs' was absolutely extraordinary. I've been humming that song ever since!

Besides the composition & music what appealed to me the most were the lyrics -

"( chandane shimpit jaashi chalata tu chanchale
onjali udhalit moti hasari tara-fule ) - 2

vahati aakashganga ki katichi mekhala
tejpunjachi zhallalli taar padaraa gunfile
chandane shimpit jaashi chalata tu chanchale..."

I mean, what is it that inspires people to come up with words, word-arrangements & imaginations like these!! I believe that an artist knows when he has a tiger by it's tail, but this... this is way beyond... this is divine.

And for someone as little as a 14-year old Arya to pull off such a tricky song and with such finesse was absolutely unbelievable. Hat's off!

All songs in the audio-format are also downloadable from the Zee-Marathi website. The video can be found here.